Who’s protecting who?
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0264550510373812 |
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Who’s protecting who?
David M Scott, Chair, Probation Chiefs Association (2008–9)
Abstract The author was invited by the Probation Journal to comment from his
own leadership perspective on a serious case failure and its aftermath. He considers
the context of the case, the predominant political culture of command and control
and the crude allocation of blame. He concludes that these factors, together with
political short-termism, jeopardize public protection because they preclude open-
ness to learning at every level, including Government.
Keywords leadership, learning, openness, ownership, public protection,
uncertainty
The emasculationof the Probation Service over the pastten years has been accompa-
nied by political apathy and public indifference. At the beginning of this Millennium
there was much talk of giving Probation a national voice and a strengthened role in
the Criminal Justice System. At the end of the decade, Probation has been pushed
from pillar to post. Far from having a national voice, the organization, which at any
one time supervises200,000 plus offenders in the community, is not even represented
in its own right in key nationaldecision-making fora but subsumedwithin a vast Prison
Service dominated bureaucracy. A national asset is being squandered.
For the best part of one hundred years, Probation was led locally and overseen
by a light touch Home Office unit which provided administration and the critical
interface with ministers. The role of the Chief Officer was to deliver professional
local leadership and to work closely with the very communities where offending
happened and to which all but the most dangerous offenders would return on
completion of their prison sentence.
The predominant political themes of the past ten years have been a growing
intolerance of crime and anti-social behaviour and an emphasis on punishment,
public protection and the improvement of criminal justice performance across the
whole system. Arguably no other agency has been as affected as Probation by the
political short-termism and opportunism which have prevailed in a period of
heightened public anxiety and frustration about law and order failings. The
The Journal of Community and Criminal Justice
Copyright ª2010 NAPO Vol 57(3): 291-295
DOI: 10.1177/0264550510373812
www.napo.org.uk
http://prb.sagepub.com
Comment
291
Downloaded from http://prb.sagepub.com at SAGE Publications on February 5, 2010
To continue reading
Request your trial